Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation in the world. Of its large population, the majority speak Indonesian, making it one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.

Most Indonesians, aside from speaking the national language, are often fluent in another regional language (examples include Javanese, Sundanese and Madurese), which are commonly used at home and within the local community. Most formal education, and nearly all national media and other forms of communication, are conducted in Indonesian. In East Timor, which was an Indonesian province from 1975 to 1999, Indonesian is recognised by the constitution as one of the two working languages (the other being English), alongside the official languages of Tetum and Portuguese.

Definition

The definition of the term is not always precise, and institutional definitions such as museum "Departments of Antiquities" often cover later periods, but in normal usage Gothic objects, for example, would not now be described as antiquities, though in 1700 they might well have been, as the cut-off date for antiquities has tended to retreat since the word was first found in English in 1513. Non-artistic artifacts are now less likely to be called antiquities than in earlier periods. Francis Bacon wrote in 1605: "Antiquities are history defaced, or some remnants of history which have casually escaped the shipwreck of time".

Antiquities (Magic: The Gathering)

Antiquities was the fifth Magic: The Gatheringset and the second expansion set. It was the first set to have an original backstory that explores the mythos of the Magic universe (seeMagic: The Gathering storylines). The story is primarily about the brothers Urza and Mishra who are inseparable at first, but become sworn enemies over the finding of two power stones. Trying to get hold of the other's stone they eventually lay waste to the whole continent of Terisiare. The set was created by the group of students at the University of Pennsylvania that had helped Richard Garfield design the original game. Mechanically Antiquities revolves around artifacts. Only 35 of the 85 different cards are colored, the remaining 50 cards being artifacts and lands. The expansion symbol for Antiquities was an anvil.

Set history

Antiquities managed to solve many of the printing errors that had plagued previous sets, although the expansion symbol was missing from the card Reconstruction, and the circle around the activation cost of Tawnos's Weaponry was omitted in half the printing. The only major problem noticed by players was the poor collation of the set; many booster boxes contained several packs with exactly the same cards in each, making it next-to-impossible for players in many parts of the country to collect complete sets. To correct this, Wizards of the Coast introduced a "buyback" program, allowing players to trade in their excess cards for money. This tentatively backfired on many players who cashed in early as Antiquities cards soon began rising in price on the secondary-sales market. In the UK, the 'buyback' was limited to the uncommon cards; however, it was possible to exchange these for cards from the previous Arabian Nights expansion.

Antiquities of the Jews

Antiquities of the Jews (Greek:Ἰουδαϊκὴ ἀρχαιολογία, Ioudaikē archaiologia; Latin:Antiquitates Judaicae), also Judean Antiquities (see Ioudaios), is a 20-volume historiographical work composed by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in the 13th year of the reign of Roman emperor Flavius Domitian which was around AD 93 or 94.Antiquities of the Jews contains an account of history of the Jewish people, written in Greek for Josephus' gentile patrons. In the first ten volumes, Josephus follows the events of the historical books of the Hebrew Bible beginning with the creation of Adam and Eve. The second ten volumes continue the history of the Jewish people beyond the biblical text and up to the Jewish War.

This work, along with Josephus's other major work, The Jewish War (De Bello Iudaico), provides valuable background material to historians wishing to understand 1st-century AD Judaism and the early Christian period.

Content

In the preface of Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus provides his motivation for composing such a large work. He writes: